


don't know what you have till you lose it

by Mister_Fox



Category: Bleach, The Magnus Archives (Podcast)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fusion, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Archivist!Ichigo, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-29
Updated: 2020-05-29
Packaged: 2021-03-03 03:42:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,580
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24438382
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mister_Fox/pseuds/Mister_Fox
Summary: It used to be, of course, that people thought soulmates were the perfect romantic partners, true loves and what not. These days, after much research…. well, there isn’t any truth to the old beliefs.Yes, soulmates can match well, be the best of partners - but they could simply be the best of friends, or even not end up getting along at all well. As best anyone can tell, it’s all a cosmic joke about how everyone and everything dies, and that humans best not forget that.The only definitely true thing is the fact that the words written on your body are the last words your soulmate will say before dying.UraIchi Week 2020 - Day 5, Soulmates
Relationships: Kurosaki Ichigo/Urahara Kisuke, Kurotsuchi Mayuri/Urahara Kisuke
Comments: 4
Kudos: 48
Collections: UraIchi Week 2020





	don't know what you have till you lose it

There are two kinds of people in the world: people who spend their whole lives obsessing over the meanings of their soulmate phrases, over who truly says them, what they mean, what will happen; and people who choose to not give a single flying fuck.

Personally, Ichigo tries his best to be the second kind. Life will do as it will, and wondering about the last words his soulmates would ever say is _pointless_ ; it’s not even like soulmates mean. Sure, two people could potentially be a very good romantic or platonic match, if one is willing to work at the relationship. And sure, you will _always_ be there in some way to hear your soulmate’s last words.

It _used_ to be, of course, that people thought soulmates were the perfect romantic partners, true loves and what not. These days, after much research…. well, there isn’t any truth to the old beliefs.

Yes, soulmates can match well, be the best of partners - but they could simply be the best of friends, or even not end up getting along at all well. As best anyone can tell, it’s all a cosmic joke about how everyone and everything dies, and that humans best not forget that.

The only _definitely_ _true_ thing is the fact that the words written on your body are the last words your soulmate will say before dying. Not that the words themselves aren’t immutable, although no one knows if that’s because the future can change, or a person’s soulmates can.

“ _What is a Kurosaki Ichigo?_ ” has been written in tidy, cramped handwriting on Ichigo’s inner left wrist since he turned thirteen, the writing usually concealed under a thick wristwatch these days.

It is _precisely half_ of the reason he doesn’t want to think about things too much. It could mean anything, really, from his foreign-language-speaking soulmate only hearing his name right before they die, to his soulmate being old and suffering from dementia and no longer knowing his name when they pass away. There’s no way to know, and worrying about it is pretty damn pointless. There are better things to waste time on.

The other half of the reason is in the writing on his wrist. But there is little to be done about purposefully changing fate, Ichigo knows, and so he covers the untidy scrawl of “ _Please, please let me out,”_ on his right wrist with a collection of tacky bracelets, and does his best to forget about it.

* * *

The Magnus Institute studies a lot of supernatural phenomena. Soulmate marks are among them. Sort of.

There are a crate of statements about them in the archive, all of them dumped together, and when Ichigo looks at the rest of the mess… Honestly, that part is organised enough for now. He’ll get to it at some point later.

Maybe the _Let me out_ words are about his soulmate being a coworker and finally dying of old age or something, the two of them still trying to sort out his _mess_.

If the previous Archivist wasn’t dead, Ichigo would have been very tempted to have _some very strong words with him._

* * *

Ichigo meets Urahara Kisuke through a mutual acquaintance. Sort of.

It’s not a previously set-up meeting, and Kisuke hasn’t been referred to the Institute to give a statement about a supernatural experience or anything. He’s just tagging along after Mayuri, dropping off some new and interesting reports from the police that are supplements for some statements.

Ichigo has some suspicions that these are not, exactly, acquired through Mayuri’s own clearance, but honestly? He doesn’t want to ask. With his usual source’s recent computer troubles, he’s not gonna look a gift horse in the mouth.

...Maybe at his ass though. Maybe.

He’s known that Mayuri had a partner- the Archivist preceding Ichigo, which is why he was helping out Ichigo, now, but hadn’t realised he’d started dating again. Not that he’s gonna judge him.

Everyone processes and grieves differently, after all.

Which is why Ichigo is not going to say anything about the fact that he saw the familiar writing on Kisuke’s right wrist.

“ _Please, please let me out.”_

So what if they share a soulmate?

It’s not entirely infrequent for people to have a shared soulmate. It doesn’t mean that they themselves are soulmates - their second names could be anyone, literally.

And even with all the proof and studies that the words mean so, so little when it comes to relationships… Ichigo doesn’t really want to butt in. Flirting with either of them, maybe, okay, fine, but this?

This, he’s not gonna mention.

Not until he has a better idea of what they think of soulmates, because right now, Kisuke strikes him as a _pretty traditional guy._

Seriously, who _wears_ … a monk’s clothes, and in London, at that?

* * *

They have to stop the Unknowing. Him, Chad, Uryu, Orihime, Rukia.

They’re the only ones who know what is coming. The only way to stop it - as many explosives in the area as possible, to be set off once the thing is underway so that it can’t be attempted for several more centuries, so that the Stranger will have to _wait_ , and not just try in a different place.

There’s no way to know which, if any, of them are going to come back from his mission.

Or, well- He and Chad and Rukia are going.

The other two are going to stay back, and deal with Aizen.

Just in case, Ichigo leaves a voicemail for Kisuke and Mayuri. Just in case.

They don’t know nearly enough to stop or interfere.

How could they?

* * *

He doesn’t know.

He doesn’t understand.

He stumbles around- a place, a place, he is in a place, and a place is a thing to be at, and one place is not another place, and he is _here_ , and here is-

He doesn’t know.

But _here_ is not where he was _before_ , before he ran from the thing that was not what it looked like, the thing that looked like other things, that spoke to people he knows - he knew, because things are _hard to know,_ right now, in this place, and that feels like his own fault.

He doesn’t understand what is going on.

There are two people in front of him, who is not the not-person that he saw before.

He can see their wrists, their hands held tightly as they walk, looking like they are concentrating very hard. The one with his eyes closed leads, a small thing like the one in _his_ own hand held tightly, although he can not remember what it is, and can not understand why the stranger would have the same thing.

He can see words on their wrists, words like his own. The one that is not looking has the words about leaving. The other one has words about a strawberry.

“We- have- there is a person here, in this place, that we have walked to,” the one that follows says, biting his lip so hard it’s bleeding, trying to concentrate. “We were- a thing, there is a thing to do, we are here to do a thing now that we’re together.”

“I am also here to- do, something,” he says. Even if he doesn’t remember what it is. “But I can’t… I can’t-”

“It’s okay, new Archivist. We are here to help. But we have to get out a little, to- we have to get to a different place. We must leave.”

He follows them. Where else can he go?

As he sees the words with the strawberry again, he remembers, suddenly.

His name.

“Kurosaki Ichigo. Of course.” How did he forget, how- the Unknowing. This is the Unknowing, where there is- no sense, no understanding.

“What is a Kurosaki Ichigo?” asks the one whose eyes are closed frowning. He makes a strange motion with his free hand, like he’s holding a fan, and his finger slides over the bright red button.

Of a remote bomb detonator.

* * *

Ichigo paces.

He visits, every other day, and every time, it’s so hard to go in there, even though it’s been _months_.

The words are said before dying, and Kisuke lies there still and silent and without a pulse, in a hospital bed.

Lays there, pristine and untouched for months, his brain, impossibly, somehow still active, even as the faded word on Ichigo’s wrist pronounce him dead.

Maybe it’s time to dig into those statements about soul marks.

Maybe there’s something there about them.

Mayuri’ll help, if Ichigo asks, he's sure, what with one set of his words matching Ichigo’s. They're Kisuke’s words. They were soulmates, then. His other set is the same as one of Kisuke's, the ones that don't match Ichigo's, but Ichigo asked to not know what those words say.

He doesn’t want to know his own last words, he finds.

* * *

Kisuke does not speak when he wakes up. He smiles at Ichigo and Mayuri, and he writes and asks questions while they wait for him to be discharged from hospital and he drinks in the world with eyes that Ichigo knows had been _lost_ in an accident.

Eyes that, somehow, he had gained back between Ichigo’s voicemail and stopping the Unknowing by _unknowingly blowing it up._

Eventually, they’ll have to figure out what happened. What has changed. What it all means.

For now, Ichigo just wants to be happy that they got him back.

He very, very much hopes that they got him back.

**Author's Note:**

> I imagine, the Soulmate Words thing comes from the End, as a constant, permanent reminder that everyone, including loved ones, die. What a better way to make everyone afraid of death, right?
> 
> Here's a link to [Cywscross' UraIchi Discord Server](https://discordapp.com/invite/ADFnKTZ#_=_)!


End file.
